The Chains of Humanity
by the.love.that.binds
Summary: The chains of humanity; the emotions binding a vampire to the remnants of the people they used to be. A vampire's greatest weakness. This story revolves around the pain, heartbreak, and onslaught of emotions of the supernatural creatures of Mystic Falls.
1. Prologue

_The Chains of Humanity_

_PROLOGUE_

* * *

_"Love is a vampire's greatest weakness, and we are not weak."_

_"No matter how easy it is to turn it off, it keeps trying to fight its way back in. And sometimes I let it."_

_"We choose our own path. Our values and our actions define who we are."_

_"But I haven't lived at all!"_

_"I can handle myself."_

_"It's difficult to separate your feelings. Love, lust, anger, desire, it can all blur into one urge. Hunger."_

_"I will always look out for myself. I did what I could to survive."_

___"Hunt. Prey. Kill. It was all I knew."_

___"The worst day of loving someone is the day that you lose them."_

___"I've learned to adapt. I don't need to be fixed. I don't want to be fixed."_

___"She didn't make us monsters; we did that to ourselves."_

_"And I'd like nothing more than to get her back. Because the...the girl that she's become...that...that I've become...is different. Somehow...darker. Who I am, what I want..."_

___"I made a choice that I will regret for the rest of my life. Now let me try to fix it."_

_"I'm not human. And I miss it. I miss it more than anything in the world. That is my secret. But there is only so much hurt a man can take."_

_"Life is too cruel. If we cease to believe in love, why would we want to live?"_

_"I'm lost."_

_"Go right ahead. Laugh at the girl who loved too easily."_

___"Is my love not enough?"_

___"I don't want to die."_

___"That was the only time I've ever thought about being human."_

_"Because the only one I can count on is me."_

_"Because when people see good, they expect good. And I don't want to have to live up to anybody's expectations."_

_"I do not believe in love."_

_ "I used to think the worst feeling in the world was losing someone you loved, but I was wrong. The worst feeling is the moment that you realize that you've lost yourself."_

* * *

The chains of humanity. The emotions that bind a vampire for eternity. The only thing that keeps them connected to sanity. A vampire can pretend, but they will always feel, no matter what. There will always be inevitable pain. When it can turn off as easily as a switch, it's never completely gone. It's always...lingering, a fragment of a memory of what is used to be like to be human. The decisions are each vampire's choice to make. What they decide does not determine who they are, but rather, who they are becoming.

There will always be grief.

There will always be desire.

There will always be trust.

There will always be envy.

There will always be courage.

There will always be hope.

There will always be guilt.

There will always be hunger.

There will always be revenge.

There will always be shame.

There will always be kindness.

There will always be loyalty.

There will always be betrayal.

There will always be pity.

There will always be happiness.

There will always be sorrow.

There will always be anger.

There will always be hatred.

There will always be love.

_The chains of humanity._


	2. Damon Salvatore: Love

The_ Chains of Humanity_

1

Damon Salvatore

LOVE

* * *

_"I'm not human! And I miss it, I miss it more than anything in the world! That is my secret."_

Damon could feels the chains tightening at his heart as he realized he was regaining his humanity. After a long time she now held the keys to his heart, to loosen the chains or to tighten them.

It was a slow process at first. What sped it up was _her._

Elena. Katherine's doppelganger, with the same long dark hair, the same fire in those brown eyes. Even as a vampire, Elena still differed from Katherine. They were different in so many ways; the only similarities being capturing the hearts of the two Salvatore brothers, and their looks. And their cunningness, of course. Katherine's was sneaky and deceptive, only aiming for destruction and lies. But Elena's was smooth and capable, only doing for the good of others.

Damon had loved others before, but it wasn't like Elena. Damon loved his brother a long time ago, but now all he held for him was hatred. He had lost him completely. Damon had loved Rose as good friends; they understand each other and what it meant to have all love broken and worthless. To not care anymore. He loved Andie as a kind of mentor, for teaching him that love changes everyone and he should not be afraid to embrace whom he truly was. He loved Katherine was years ago, in spite of his brother or not, she wasn't sure anymore, but his love for her was destroyed when she admitted the fatal truth.

When they first met Damon only wanted her to torture his brother, to revel in the fact that he could take something that didn't belong to him. But it was not so. As time passed, Damon grew fond of the girl. She was extremely compassionate, with a caring and loyal heart willing enough to sacrifice even herself for her loved ones. She believed everyone could be saved. She believed in love.

His twisted, wicked love for Katherine had been something he had held onto to try to prove his existence. Because she had loved him, and no one had loved him, not his golden brother, nor his father. He held onto that love because if he didn't have that love he would be broken. A dying man.

Elena tried to understand him. Not before long they had formed a bond, based on mutual survival and a shaky but increasing friendship. She trusted him, which he thought would be the biggest of her mistakes. But time after time he found himself proving his trust to her, saving her and her loved ones countless times. He did it only for her. He didn't know why, but he found the goodness in his heart to protect Elena. Perhaps it was her striking resemblance to Katherine, perhaps it wasn't. He didn't know until much later.

Then came the time Katherine had told him the unforgivable, ugly truth. That she had loved Stefan, only Stefan, but never Damon. In a futile attempt he downed his sorrows in alcohol, but only caused him Elena's hatred after severe actions. He went to her, confessing to her, that they had something and she _knew_ it. If he could not have Katherine he must have Elena, for the thought of unshared, shattered love was too unbearable. When she refused and said the same as Katherine, those _very _exact words, he poured all his misery and fury into a deathly blow bestowed upon her brother. The boy didn't deserve it. He was weak, vulnerable, emotionally unstable. But Damon did it anyways.

Eventually Elena forgave him. It was grudging at first, but came naturally afterwards. Damon was glad. He was have, at least, her friendship, her love in his life to fill the holes in his heart.

His moral dilemma: his love, or his hatred. His humanity, which Elena brought up in him. To embrace or not to embrace it?

They ended up having the journey of a lifetime. The roller coaster ride went from terminal werewolf bites, to sacrifices for family, to stolen kisses, and to heartbreak. Stefan's absence left a hole like a gaping wound in Elena, and Damon was left to pick up the jagged pieces of what remained of her heart. He tried to heal her, as she had done him. However, she was never completely fixed, but tried to hide it through her determination and strength. Damon saw through her facade, though. It was tearing her apart.

So he did what he did best. He saved her precious life, told her he would never leave her, that he would protect her. He tried to track down his brother and Klaus. For once in his life, Damon assumed the role of the good guy. It was hard at first, even tiring, when he realized he couldn't do what he wanted, when he wanted. He had to be good and noble. But if that meant keeping Elena safe as well as her heart, he would try to abandon the bad side in him. His true nature resurfaced from time to time, succeeding in pushing Elena's buttons and making them having possibly the worst fights they had ever had. But he still saved her.

Not until she died. But it hadn't even been him who had let it happen. It was his brother, if that were even possible, who was supposed to be her white knight in shining armour. But, Stefan's actions revealed that he valued Elena's freedom of choice rather than her life. He could not even decipher how furious Damon had been at his brother, how he loathed him. He had never hated someone with such a fury in his life.

He had actually let her die! Damon saved the Elena, became the good guy, mended her heart, picked her back up when she fell down, and above all, loved her. And _that _was what he got in return? Her death? And decided by her lover, by her saviour. Twisted irony, but true indeed. There was nothing good about her death. Not even the fact that he would no longer face her rejection of love. But he would rather live with that for a thousand years, to see Elena be with his brother; to kiss him, to love him. Knowing that she would never, for all of eternity, belong to him. That his heart would continue to be shredded into pieces until there was nothing left and he truly was a monster. But he would rather live with that than to face her death.

For once in his life, fate granted one of his wishes. Apparently, Damon's blood had been in Elena's system, and when she awoke, she was transitioning. She chose to complete it. What Damon saw of her during the next days were what he had always seen in her, but she had never rekindled it until now. The force and true power of her fire. And he loved her, but would still love her if she returned as a human. He accepted her, when her friends and family had nearly shunned her, claiming that she wasn't supposed to be this person, leaving her more and more distraught. She didn't know which way to turn, whose arms to run into. So, she chose Damon's. At first, he was joyful that she had begun to rely on him and trust him only _him_, and it gave him hope like never before.

But it was not true; it would only be if Elena became human and confronted her feelings. The sire bond destroyed her opinions and clouded her thoughts of only Damon. She told him that she loved him. He had been waiting for someone to say that to him his entire life. But it was complicated; Elena's feelings could have been manipulations of the sire bond. No one would truly know unless they found the cure.

The race for the cure included much, much bloodshed, and mentoring a certain whiny, unexperienced little hunter. It also included compelling, much more heartbreak, and shocking truths.

He did it for Elena. He would do anything for her. And he always would.

He loved her when they first met. He loved her when she hated him. He loved her when they shared dances. He loved her when she trusted him and was willing to save him. He loved her when she broke his heart. He loved her when she betrayed him. He loved her when they had their worst fights. He loved her when she loved his brother. He loved her when they were friends. He loved her when there was playful bantering, and they hadn't a care in the world. He loved her when she was human. He loved her when she became a vampire. He loved her when she told him she loved him.

_"You should love the person that makes you happy you're alive. And that's what love should be." "I love you, Elena. And it's because I love you that I can't be selfish with you." "I love you, Damon." "You want a love that consumes you. You want passion, adventure, and maybe even a little danger." "I mad at you because i love you!" "I love you...you should know that." "I really believe that, everything that Damon has done, he's done for love." "I didn't sleep with Damon because of the sire bond, I slept with Damon because I'm in love with him." "I think I'm falling in love with him." "Because I love you, and you love me."_

And he would always love her.


End file.
